Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 29 June 2023.
Partnerships
TechPassport, the SaaS provider connecting financial institutions with enterprise ready fintech firms, has teamed up with Greengage, a crypto friendly digital merchant banking pioneer. Greengage says joining the TechPassport platform enables it to connect with fintech companies providing innovative solutions to help deliver on its digital merchant banking vision.
Matrix Applications, a New York-based fintech service bureau, has partnered with ZeroBeta Inc, a provider of cross-asset, real-time risk, collateral & market data management technology, to elevate its risk management capabilities in the capital markets. The partnership combines ZeroBeta’s BlueShift Platform with Matrix’s suite of collateral management, margining, clearing and back-office systems.
AU10TIX, the identity verification and management company, has added NeoGames, a technology-driven provider of end-to-end iLottery and iGaming solutions globall to its portfolio. The partnership follows years of AU10TIX providing an identity fraud management service to NeoGames subsidiary Aspire Global. The expanded contract encompasses all NeoGames businesses, including NeoGames and NeoPollard.
On-demand insurance platform, INSHUR has chosen to partner with SADA, the tech consultancy, and Google Cloud to bolster rapid global growth using Google Cloud solutions. The partnership will enable INSHUR to bring new products to market quicker, leverage AI to automate key processes and support self-service options for customers.
Shieldpay, the high-value complex B2B payments provider, has announced its strategic partnership with The International Stock Exchange (TISE), the provider of financial markets and securities services for the private markets platform TISE Private Markets. Through the partnership, SMEs will be provided with a suite of trading, settlement and registry management services. It will also allow streamlined verification checks, safeguarding of funds and automated payouts.
Unlimit, the London-based global fintech pioneer, and PayWings, a versatile digital payments platform, have joined forces to create a digital payment solution catering to both B2C and B2B markets. By leveraging Unlimit’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) API, PayWings will provide users with an IBAN account. The partnership will also enable the integration of a suite of Unlimit’s features, including salary payments, contract payments and on-demand account and card issuance for large enterprises.
Mergers and acquisitions
Visa has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pismo, a cloud-native issuer processing and core banking platform with operations in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe, for $1billion in cash. Pismo will retain its current management team.
Funding and investments
Nothing, the London-based consumer technology brand, bags a $96million fundraising round led by Highland Europe, with participation also from existing investors GV (Google Ventures), EQT Ventures and C Capital. House music supergroup Swedish House Mafia also took part.
Industry hires
Brex, a unified global spend platform, has welcomed Jason Mok to its team. Coming from venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, Mok supports Brex in its mission to help founders manage their financial operations, build community, and grow their business. Additionally, Brex has named Nadav Lidor as the company’s lead for banking products catered to startups.
QuickFee has appointed Rafael Casas as director, strategic alliances and partnerships in the US. Casas now leads the US alliances and partner strategy to cultivate and deepen QuickFee’s strategic relationships in the accounting profession.
Freedom Finance Mortgages Ltd, a UK second charge mortgage distributor, has named Richard Sharp as managing director. He joins from Tandem Bank, where he was managing director of unsecured loans and customer proposition director. In addition to this appointment, FFML also recently launched a refreshed proposition to support brokers.
Core banking provider Tuum hires Dorota Nosal-Butler as head of customer enablement. Nosal-Butler will play a central role in ensuring Tuum can deliver a fast-growing number of projects while sustaining industry-leading implementation times and customer success. She joins Tuum and re-joins the fintech space after a brief break to focus on parenting.
FSCom Limited (fscom), a specialist governance, risk, and compliance consultancy in the UK and Ireland, has announced the appointment of Heather O’Gorman as its new associate director in the payments team. In her previous compliance consultancy role, O’Gorman was the driving force in building a payments and financial crime practice focused on supporting payment and e-money institutions with their regulatory needs under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Additional appointments
French fintech Aria has opened an office in London while appointing Tom Lamb as head of UK. Lamb will lead its growth efforts as well as scale the UK team with six to eight hires expected in 2023. With a recent debt raise of £50million from M&G Investments, Aria is prepped for further growth in the UK and European market with annual finance capacity of over £1billion.
Auriga, a software provider for the omnichannel banking and payments industry, has announced Kelum Dissanayake as its sales account & business development manager for South East Asia. He will focus on managing business development and sales operations in the Southeast Asian market.
The Obu Angel Investment Platform is on a mission to shake-up angel investing by closing the gender gap. The new online platform has launched in the UK focussed on increasing the number of women angel investors from 14 to 30 per cent by 2030. The Obu Angel Investment Platform connects eligible women angels and allies with female-founded businesses, where they can offer funds and expertis.
